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tv   Power Lunch  CNBC  October 31, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT

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customers of knight. right? that's the kind of people we are talking about? >> they are customers of knight. whether that's affected the order flow -- i assume they're routing it away right now. i would assume that's the case. >> bob pisani, thanks so much. we'll continue to follow the story on wall street today with "power lunch" which starts now. thank you very much. in just a moment, air force one is going to touch down in new jersey. it is of course bringing president obama here for a tour of the damaged area from hurricane sandy. part of that tour will be by helicopter and this is what he will see when he flies above seaside heights, new jersey. utter devastation. there, the one-time amusement park at seaside heights. simon hobbs is in for sue herera today. but first, to the aftermath of the storm and president obama's visit to the new jersey coastline.
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kayla tausche is live in atlantic city. kayla? >> reporter: hi, tyler. we just saw air force one fly right over us and headed likely toward the atlantic city airport. we have tons of residents in atlantic city who turned out very excited, very rambunctious to seat president. it is the first day of sun after days of wind and rain and of course the wreckage of sandy here is evident as a place that used to be home to more of a residential part of the boardwalk. residents would fish off of it and stroll here. not so much the business part of the boardwalk but the wreckage you're seeing here, nonetheless. here in atlantic city the cleanup is just in its early, early stages. some residents who chose to stay behind getting power. i spoke to one resident today who finally got power, got a pump to his basement and started trying to pump out water that had flooded his basement. he was moved to tears when he started talking about watching the boardwalk float down the street earlier this week. moving a little bit farther north, i mean the images are so
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arresting of the damage that we're seeing. a bridge that's nearly completely submerged under water and houses that arguably are also submerged with water, too. the images are just unbelievable. now that people are actually starting to be able to get to some of these places and send back pictures, videos, tweets, it's really, really moving stuff. now everyone knows what governor christie was talking about when he said yesterday this is some of the worst damage he has ever seen. he also said that fema will play a very strong role in the cleanup and recovery and rebuilding of this region. 83 miles long. most of it affected by this storm in a very, very big way. of course, that is part of the genesis of the meeting with the president today. the plane is now landing, i am told the president had just moments ago stopped by the fema headquarters before coming up here. and now we are told that he has landed in atlantic city. tyler, we'll be watching this meeting. we'll tell you the latest as we have it but for now, back over to you in the studio. >> kayla, thanks very much.
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as you just saw, air force one touching down at the atlantic city regional airport there. he's going to get aboard one of those two helicopters, along with governor chris christie of new jersey, and first do a helicopter tour of some of the devastation in the atlantic city area and up and down the jersey shorelines. then he will get out and go on foot in to some of the areas. we'll, of course, follow that story for you and bring you the images as we get them in the building here. right now, meantime, let's turn to some of the numbers for this storm. 6 million people remain without power because of the storm, including almost all of lower manhattan with the notable exception perhaps of the new york stock exchange. another 3,000 flights have been canceled today. and three u.s. navy helicopter carrier ships have been dispatched to the new york area to help with recovery efforts. 20,000 people, including one of our producers, remains stranded
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in hoboken due to massive flooding there. this is just the latest video from that town. it's just west of new york city, home to many people who work on wall street. at one time, the former governor of this state, jon corzine and the quarterback of the new york giants, eli manning, they lived there. on a good day, this is five minutes from manhattan. this is not one of the good days. mass transit still pretty much paralyzed in the new york area. looking at video now of the south ferry station. that is not far from wall street. if you've been down in to the toe of manhattan there, you've probably ridden on that line to go to the new york stock exchange. new york governor mario cuomo said a few moments ago that -- andrew cuomo -- excuse me -- that there will be limited subway service tomorrow. we hope to get more information on that from mayor bloomberg in about 30 minutes' time. amtrak is now running service from newark to points south, but
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not in to new york city or northbound from new york city. problems still with some of the tunnels and the electrical service in -- on those lines. limited train service going to restart tomorrow for the long island railroad and metro north, which runs in to the northern new york city suburbs. tyler, down here at the floor of the new york stock exchange it's been a big day here, quite clearly. the market is now open after being forced to shut down for two full days. in fact, mayor bloomberg, such was the symbolism, took time off to kick things off today by ringing the opening bell. so far, so good. everything's gone recently smoothly. we have some connectivity problems for some of the traders. we're in slightly negative territory but it is the symbolism that is everything for most people today. john liu is the controller of new york city. he's just toured lower manhattan and he joins us very kindly here on the floor of the new york
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stock exchange. welcome. a big day for us. >> good to see you again, simon. >> what did you see outside? what does it mean for the revenue for new york city? >> well, much of lower manhattan, as you just mentioned, is still paralyzed just because there is no power, there is no mass transit. people are finding it very difficult to get back to work around here. even if they are able to get back to work -- i've got almost 200 people back in my offices without lights, without computers, without phone lines. although i think some of the phone lines are now starting to come on. it's difficult. it is good to see here at the exchanges that things are humming. >> oh, for sure. for sure. classic thing for me is to ask you what it is going to cost the city. i'd like to just turn that around if i may and say if fema covers some of our bills an private insurance coughs up billions, could this be a positive -- as far as the economics, as far as jobs and growth are concerned because it will add the extra umph to the economy. is that a possibility? >> it certainly is the
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possibility. first, i don't want to downplay how difficult this has been for the city and for the region. many people are now without homes. there are still thousands of people in shelters. so it's still a difficult time. we've got about $30 million of emergency contracts out there, expenditures that we did not anticipate. but over the long run, as you mentioned, if fema does come through with reimbursements to the city for some of our damaged publix works and the insurance companies come through with what is surely going to be billions of dollars of reconstruction money, that could be some kind of stimulus to the city's economy. >> you mentioned fema and the human tragedy. we are watching live pictures here from atlantic city's airport where air force one is just landing and the president having been to fema today is going to now link up with governor chris christie and tour the area in those helicopters to look at the very human side of what has gone on. as far as the human side is concerned for you here in the city, we still have lower manhattan like a ghost town in
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many instances, certainly at night as a result of the power shutdown. i don't know the amount of money that's generated from bringing in international tourism to the city or from the financiers that come to manhattan, but are you sure that we are adequately served by the utilities here, that we should have this shut down now for four or five days for a surge of water that arguably could have been predicted? >> that is a great question. that's something that's going to be the subject of a great deal of analysis after we start cleaning up and digging out from under this, getting the power back online, getting the buses and subways running again. it's difficult here in lower manhattan but i also have to emphasize that in many parts of the city, people are now without homes. their homes have been wiped out. there is a great deal of despair in those areas of the city as well. so with regard to the economics of this situation, we have to look at the short and long-term economics. i think you bring up a great point of the fema assistance and the insurance companies. >> mr. liu, tyler mathisen here.
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you mentioned tourism in the city and one of the major tourism events of the season is the new york city marathon this sunday. it is going to proceed as scheduled. i know you're not the decider on this, but you're the only public official we've got on tv right now. you think that's advisable given the state of the city? >> that's supposed to take place on sunday and that's still several days away. hopefully the city will be in a condition to be able to accommodate the marathon. i would encourage the organizers to go ahead with it so long as everybody can be kept safe. there are other events, for example, tonight's halloween parade which is a major event in new york city that is going to at least be postponed, if not canceled. >> you were making the point, it might still happen. it is only at this moment -- >> it is not a total cancellation. obviously a halloween parade that's not on october 31st doesn't quite have the same flavor. but there have been a lot of preparations made for the parade
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and people are excited about it. >> controller, it is good to see you, john liu there, the controller of new york city. for the past decade, ing has been the title sponsor of the new york city marathon. tomorrow we'll talk to the man behind that sponsorship, jeff becker. head of ing's u.s. investment team will join us. will the race go on? he may be the man by then with the answer. that's tomorrow at 1:00 eastern. let's get the market picture with bob pisani. bob? >> the important thing today is the nyse got exactly what it wanted -- a nice quiet open. volume on the light side. i anticipate that will pick up going into the close. we get market on close orders for the end of the month. want to bring you up to date on news on knight capital. knight capital spokesman telling me we have had power issues midday and told our clients to route away. remember, knight capital is in new jersey where there's been flooding and power issues for the last couple of days. fixed income business is fine, a spokesperson says.
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all others have shut down like the nyse. we were on generators today and unfortunately they failed. we are working on restoring power now but unsure when it will return. we did move all of our equity clients order flow away so no clients were affected. that is a statement from knight capital group. elsewhere we drifted slowly lower throughout the day. we opened higher. not far from the lows for the day. insurance stocks, small and short stocks down about 2%. some of the big home repair companies like armstrong and owens corning to the up side. seema mody is live uptown at the nasdaq. let's check in with her now. >> the nasdaq reopened after being shut for two days. ro volumes relatively low. some trades say they are sticking to the sidelines to basically assess and analyze the market post-hurricane sandy before making any big trades. many people on the east coast lost power, but within tech,
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it's all about apple. first, is trading below $600 a share which is a key psychological level. second, it's flirting with a 200-day moving average of 588. facebook down 3.6%. roughly 230 million shares were unlocked allowing employees to sell their shares on the open market. over here, groupon down better than 7%, as well as bidu down 5.4%. overall, trading at the nasdaq moving smoothly. back to you. let's just mention you are watching live pictures from atlantic city where the president is about to emerge from air force one to meet governor chris christie, and then tour the devastation in the wake of sandy. it's been fascinating to see so regularly at briefings, be it with mayor bloomberg or with governor chris christie, the way
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in which they reference. these are personal calls that they've had from the president, his reassurance that he will ensure that fema answers any questions that they have and in return, of course, this is a very important potent symbol for the president to be seen in jersey in advance of tuesday's election. we'll keep an eye on that. in the meantime, of course, the big news here -- wall street back to work after the longest weather related utdowns in over one century. mayor bloomberg himself rang the bell, of course, as we noted a few moments ago. but today, with such a big deal, he also toured the floor and spoke privately to traders before the open. as bob's been saying, the exchange got what it wanted -- a confident open and indeed a quiet day. global market strategist at jpmorgan funds is here. john, truth is, one of the things the exchange was doing when it delayed opening for -- you can now see that the president here meeting governor christie. we'll keep an eye on that. one of the things the exchange studied, it has to do of taking
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that break of two days in trading was to really get in step with what the other financial players, the trading desk, mutual funds, guys like you were able to staff in response to them opening the market. there was no point in opening the market for a few high-frequency traders. it had to have you there and the likes of you as the backbone. are you back at work today? >> you're seeing more and more people come back to work. first and foremost, safety is number one priority, not only for the employees but also for the employees' families. as you take a look at our office, for example today, those people that can actually get into the office, we are in fact seeing them come in. they're taking taxis, doing what they can, some people are riding their bicycles. we are trying to get back to normal as best we can. >> many of your colleagues -- many of the staff themselves are stranded in jersey in the wake of the devastation. >> trains are still shut down. bridges, little difficult sometimes to come across the bridge and to drive over here. you have some people working from home. we're really just kind of
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playing this by ear. this is unprecedented territory for all of us. but again, to the extent people can get into the office we're starting to see them come in. >> maybe the connectivity is better in jersey. stay with us, john. we'll get back to you more later in the program to talk about what's happening in the market. let's get a "market flash" now with scott wapner. as we continue to watch the individual stocks that are moving today, keep your eye on jcpenney. you know it as jcp. that stock is down sharply today. it frankly is not the only one that's lower today in that space. we're looking at sears holdings which is selling off again as you continue to look at these pictures of president obama and chris christie, the governor of new jersey, in that helicopter about ready to tour atlantic city, final nj. both of those stocks are lower today. the street ratings put a sell on jcpenney with a ratings score of d-plus. i don't know what school you went to, but d-plus was never good, tyler. that's the story there, why that stock is -- >> not in my place, either. the rotors spinning there as
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president obama and governor christie of new jersey get ready to go on about a 45-minute, we believe, helicopter tour of some of the devastation. he is leaving now the atlantic city airport, which is just across the bay, if my geography is correct, from the main city of atlantic city. he will certainly look at the loss there of the boardwalk and the flooding that persisted in that town. and then move up and down the coastline where some of the devastation, as governor christie said yesterday, is just indescribable. so the president and governor christie will do that. then we are told the plane from marine one and take a tour either by foot or car of some of the neighborhoods and towns that have been affected by this super storm. we'll be watching those images and bring them to you throughout this hour. if you'd like to see why we're having problems getting air traffic moving again -- except there -- but he comes
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first -- look at this video. it just fed in a short while ago -- oh, my goodness! look at that! that is laguardia airport today! two days after the storm went through. runways covered with water. if you've ever flown in to or out of laguardia airport, as many of you certainly have, you know that you come right over those bays and that open water there as you fly in over citi field and the national tennis center there. look at that. scott, can you believe that? that's amazing! that water messing up air traffic now all up and down the east coast. laguardia, the hardest hit of the three airports in the new york metro area. we'll be right back with more after the break.
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the markets are not the only thing creeping back to life today. two of the new york area airports, newark and jfk, also slowly coming back online. but there's laguardia. you see why it may be a while longer for laguardia. that is flushing bay basically atop the tarmac at laguardia. if you've flown in there, you know, you come right in over the water. courtney reagan is live for us at laguardia airport. courtney? >> reporter: that's right, tyler. jfk and newark are operating on limited shuttles. but laguardia is still closed,
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as you can see behind me. 19,500 flights have been canceled in total due to the super storm. normally 1,000 flights come in or out of here per day but nothing has flown in or out since late on monday night. the port authority says laguardia contributes more than $13 billion to the new york-new jersey economy. that's more than $37 million a day when it is fully operational. so how far away are we? here's a picture taken by an airport employee yesterday. again you can see the water, very, very high. but i took this picture about an hour ago. at least at the central terminal, there is much clearance. we've seen a lot of progress here with some of that water that's been pumped out. port authority says they're still assessing the situation as to when they are reopen. that video though speaks pretty loudly. another big concern today is gasoline. brian schactman is covering that part of the story for us. he is live in new hyde park out on long island. over to you. >> reporter: simon, on long
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island there just aren't a lot of gas stations that are even open. the shell station behind me, the ones that are open, are tremendously busy. this is a side street. several streets lines are into the same station. the man who runs the station's name is bill. he said it is the absolute busiest day he has ever seen at this station. as for those people waiting in line, they're just trying to make the best of a difficult situation. >> about an hour. this is the only one that's working. >> this is the first gas i saw. so i pulled in. i've got a half a tank. i thought i'd top it off. >> oh, absolutely. the house is freezing. we got two, three cities no power and we haven't seen a truck yet. hasn't seen anybody. actually see fema, but no one else. >> reporter: the station behind me began the day with 8,000
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gallons or under 3,000. they think they'll be out by 4:00 p.m. across the street they started out with 6,000. they're at about 1,500. neither expect to get new deliveries today and they probably won't make it through the afternoon so there will be some pretty unhappy people here in a couple hours. back to you. >> but no evidence of price gouging, no evidence of raising the prices officially because of the short supply? >> so neither one of these space stations raise prices. but frank across the street says they are up 20% -- 25 cents at delivery point but he won't raise prices until he gets that next delivery. >> thank you for that, brian. let's get a "market flash" now. >> watching a couple of biotech names today. biogen one of them. that stock down today again. you see the slide of about 2.5% today. the story here at goldman sachs, basically coming out and saying baxter's drug is better than
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biogen's experimental drug. one stock up, one stock down. simon? >> thank you very much for that. we have some breaking news. new jersey transit is to resume some of its service this afternoon. the new jersey transit resume some of its service this afternoon. the latest as far ars the subway is concerned in new york is that some of that will start but not until tomorrow. up next on the program -- more stock action. stocks that could do well and the stocks that could do poorly in the wake of this storm. see who is likely to benefit and who is likely to be hurt when we come right back with some astounding images.
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ask your doctor about cialis for daily use as we look there at mayor bloomberg's office in city hall in new york city, we're waiting the latest word from him. press has not gathered yet. so probably a few minutes away, at least, for that. meantime, president obama and governor christie touring the jersey shore area by helicopter and they will be down on the ground, we think, wen it the next 45 minutes to an hour. meanwhile, millions of people are still without power in the northeast. 6 million, maybe 8 million. who really knows for sure. what are utilities up against and will they be able to recover
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some of the costs from hurricane sandy? managing director at mckwarry securities is with us. will they be able to recover the costs? how big a blow is this and who gets hit hardest? >> the impact on the costs should be manageable. most of the utilities will be able to recoup those costs over time. for the time being they will defer them on their balance sheets. they will not see much of an imact on their earnings. on the other hand, there is a weak local economies and the weather so they're down already. it is more about lost revenue than costs. >> how do they recoup the costs? do they go to the state regulatory commissions and ask for rate increases? how could they get that money back? >> in many cases, they do have riders and they have preestablished recovery of their storm costs.
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in our cases they are allowed to defer costs above a certain level on their balance sheet, and then during upcoming rate cases they will be able to recoup it. we have seen it happen after the hurricane irene. the question is what kind of a backlash utilities will face to their storm restoration efforts. they're trying their best but it will take many days before the power service is restored. and that usually triggers a lot of regulatory scrutiny and that is not good news for utilities. >> as you look at the president's helicopter fleet there touring atlantic city, are any single companies of those you follow here more at risk to really devastating hits on their balance sheets or not? can you handicap it in any way for us? >> well, ouriously obviously ns the hardest hit area. 50% of households currently in new jersey are without power.
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coastal communities in new jersey and on long island should have the highest impact. so percentage, jcp and l, lipa on long island will have the highest impacts. we will be following especially jcp&l and the connecticut utility given the fact that their storm response after hurricane irene was the really harshly criticized by regulators and they really cannot afford to do it again. >> all right, thank you very much. appreciate you being with us. down to you, simon. we will keep you all plugged in to exactly what's happened in atlantic city. president obama of course touring the damage. we'll have the latest from jersey next. plus, mayor michael bloomberg is about to speak, we believe. he is going to make an announcement about new york subway service. and what happens if all these communities are still flooded and without power on election day? could the votes be postponed?
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that is live video over staten island, new jersey where what appears to be a barge or a tanker ship has come aground -- or just sort of washed ashore there on staten island as we look -- as the president and governor christie tour the area. this is from chopper 4 which is wnbc's helicopter. there is president obama meeting in new jersey with the governor, chris christie. he just got together with him a few moments ago. the president, as i mentioned, touring the most heavily damaged areas of the state right now along the coastline. some 61 people have been killed by hurricane sandy, most in new york and new jersey. 6.1 million customers remain without power. more than 19,000 airplane flights have been canceled because of the storm with more expected. newark and jfk airports have reopened to limited service today. laguardia and teterboro remain closed. governor cuomo says we can
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expect limited subway service to be restored tomorrow. long island railroad and metro north railroad service is going to begin in some sort of limited fashion at roughly 2:00 p.m. today and some of new jersey transit -- don't know whether that meents trains or buses, will be resuming shortly as well. one of the questions starting to be asked a little louder now is -- how are the people in some of these towns going to vote? physically? literally? election day is tuesday, just six days away. who knows what power is going to be back and what polling places will look like and whether they'll be safe. eamon javers is digging in that part of the story. >> the united states has never postponed a presidential election. they held an election during the civil war and during world war ii so there is no indication they're going to do anything but hold this election on tuesday despite the devastation that we've seen in new jersey and new york. i've been calling local board of election officials in the sandy zone today. we've been able to get through to a couple of them.
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start with cape may, new jersey, that's the southern coastal portion of new jersey where i spoke with michael kennedy, the cape may county registrar. he toll me they are still evaluating conditions there. they're going to see how many polling places they're going to need to move. they had a couple in yacht clubs near the water but he said they're going to double those up with other polling places. further inland people will be able to vote there. he said the word he's getting is that the state of new jersey is going to lean to having an election on tuesday. that's the word from state officials there and they expect that most polling places will be open in cape may county, new jersey. however, he said the worst damage was in ocean county, new jersey. he doesn't have any word from election officials there. also in suffolk county, new york, i spoke with wayne rodgers, the republican board of elections commissioner up there. he told me that phones are out. they are surveying polling places by foot right now. they're most concern about those polling places that are south of montauk highway.
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that's the area closest to the ocean. he says that's where the most damage has been. he says long island power has told them they'll prioritize polling places there. he said our plan is to be good to go on tuesday. they are going to hold this election on tuesday despite the high water. >> abeamon, thank you very much. the new york mercantile exchange back in action today, as well as the new york stock exchange. at nymex, gold prices are closing down for the evening. >> we saw very low volumes as expected. not as many people here on the floor. rbc's analyst says a lot of funds are buying at the end of the month on the expectation we'll see post-sandy rebuilding stimulus and that will stimulate the economy and will stimulate perhaps copper demand here in the u.s. but for the month, that stimulus-led rally at beginning of the month that we saw for
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gold that had had it nearly $1,800 an ounce when the fed announced qe infinity. gold, copper, all snapping four-month winning streaks. the other oasis of power generation in downtown manhattan is of course the new york stock exchange. a lot of people were saying in the hotels, we've got 800,000 people without electricity in new york city. saying new york's going to open. new york mercantile exchange. that means power must be restored. we will all be following along suit. >> the lights have been on out front to that fabulous facade of the nyse all throughout this. that's been wonderful to see but not a lot of help to the other people who don't have power. nyse got exactly what it wanted this morning, a nice quiet open. it's been quiet largely.
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hmos mostly to the downside, oil services, the dow industrials started strong, slowly drifted to the downside. i think there are a couple of problems here. there is a lot of worries about the economic impact of the hurricane. it is a little worse than some people had thought. that's why you are seeing those home repair stocks. we talked last week about the owens cornings of the world, you think these stocks would have been played out. but getting a nice boost today. secondly earnings were in line but revenues are light. i think you're going to see some companies blaming hurricane sandy for some of these concerns. hurricane sandy destroyed our earnings this time. finally, this electoral uncertainty. to some extent a lot of people feel this is an election about mr. bernanke as well and his policies. of course we know what side both candidates are aligned on with that. finally not to throw in greece, but have you noticed greece is down how many days? several days in a row. it is now 10% off of its recent highs. that coalition there is looking a little frayed. >> just to come back to the fact we're starting everything up
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again, what do you make of knight capital and its inability again to function adequately? >> jersey city and -- this is a place i know very well, of courseflooding and power outages. knight had a back-up generator today that failed. that's something they don't need right now. they did the right thing routing their orders away from them and immediately notifying all of their clients but still a very difficult situation for them. >> thanks, bob. bob pisani. we'll watch the close. it is the last day of the month. let's hit on the bond pits now where treasuries are fully trading. rick santelli has the very latest from chicago. >> let's actually start with that chart bob just showed. there's a stock story to the fixed income markets as well. a little after noon, you see that dip in stocks. if you go to intraday ten, you'll see a redip in rates that tested the lows right at a time when they were moving up a bit. that was the time that traders and investors saw the adp meth
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g methodology change. it pretty much sliced last month's numbers in half. granted, that isn't really apples to apples, but nonetheless that's how the market reafkted. a one month chart of 10 shows we are a little over three weeks before we've been this low under 1.70% potentially for a closing yield and very similar patterns in europe. you were talking about greece. there is a lot of issues that we've kind of taken our eye off with our own obvious issues in the northeast part of the country but we do see that their rate structure is slipping as well. this flight to safety seems to be recharged a bit as some of the fixes in europe seem to be the charging event. sim simon, back to you. i'll take it. we'll ping-pong it around a little bit. who would have thought that the new york city police department would be conducting water rescues like this one. the video comes from staten island. rescue operations have been on since the storm hit new york on monday. those guys and women who do
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these kinds of things highly trained very brave obviously. they go in when others are trying to get out. steve leisman here with me now. steve, as we speak, the president is in a helicopter touring some of the most heavily damaged areas in the state of new jersey. i've been told that what happens here is a wealth destruction but not an economic output destruction. is it possible that this is going to, on net, add to growth? >> it's a nice thought. if you look at the rubble. unfortunately, while we're billing can be an offset from the losses from natural disasters, general economic thinking that you rarely end up on the positive side when all the costs are counted. estimates for the total cost of sandy ranging right now, as we count the rubble, as high as $50 billion. and as low as $30 billion. that would make it one of the uctive storms in our history. the unique aspect of the storm defies comparison. look at this chart our friends over at weather channel made for showing the whole enormity of
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the different types of weather. it defies comparison. sandy whipped drenching rains across a wide waswath of the country including the nation's most densely populated areas. ar worldwide saying $750 billion in insured property losses. that does not include flood damage, does not include uninsured property losses. mark zandi says perhaps two days of lost economic activity in this region would be about $20 billion. ihs says the best range is $30 billion to $50 billion acknowledging that includes property damage and lost economic activity. some of the things that could determine the plus or minus side of this, the duration of outages for the electrical system and transportation are critical. little chance of effects extending out long term. it would be naive to put forward the view that a hurricane is in some sense a stimulus for the
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economy. there is no guarantee reconstruction activity will be extra activity on top of what otherwise would have occurred. eric stroble studied the economic impact of hurricanes for years. he says that a county's annual economic growth will fall by about a half a percentage point despite the rebuilding. that's a lot especially if you consider that average county growth is 1.68% over the time that he studied which was since 1970 to 2005. usually negatives on a countrywide basis. let's go now for a "market flash." >> we stay in the biotech space. looking at vvus. there was so much optimism about this company's obesity drug when it was approved by regulators in washington. there is a little bit of caution today out of jpmorgan. the stock is down about 13% on data from the imf health that says obesity drug sales appeared
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to slow. again, maybe slow sales of its groundbreaking obesity drugs, one of the first to be approved on market, along with its competitor, arena pharmaceuticals. this stock is getting hit fairly hard as a result. >> it's been the definition of volatility obviously. >> with a word of caution out of jpmorgan today. it will be one of the images of the day. president obama side by side with new jersey republican and very outspoken governor chris christie. it is election season, after all. later today, the man behind that hot generator company that everyone is talking about. the ceo is on "fast money" at 5:00 eastern time. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above,
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advocate for new york how the city could possibly run the marathon this weekend. if you have storm damage on your house, we have a great insurance guy to walk us through the complexity of the claims crisis. don't miss it. back to you on "power lunch." >> thank you very much. as investors sift through a raft of earnings news today, they're also turning their focus to friday's jobs report. last before the presidential election and confirmation from the labor department it will happen at 8:30 eastern on friday. a strategist for jpmorgan funds. apparently the destruction from the hurricane will not show up in what we see on friday. >> i think that's a safe assumption. the concern we had was is this report actually going to come back on friday. hearing the report is coming out on friday is something we've all been looking forward to. it is the very last employment number we'll get before the big election. >> you are squarely sitting on the fence though. i don't hear a word of advice on
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value added to that event. what do you think will happen? where are we going? >> i think you can take a look at the non-farm pay rolls and the unemployment rate and it will suggest the same things we've seen over the past few months. you're seeing a very, very slow improvement in the labor market. it is happening at a painfully slow pace. gdp numb per we got last week came in just above consensus estimates 2%. 2%, that's still very, very low growth. i think the jobs number will probably reinforce that. >> what's that mean for me as an investor? >> i think the biggest thing you can understand here is there is a big difference between a weak economy that's continuing to deteriorate and a weak economy that's slowly improving. if you look at the economic data we've had here aabroad, things are in fact improving. there is a lot of noise and still a lot of disappointments out there. earnings season didn't really live up to what we were hoping for this particular earnings season but it is important for
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investors to develop a plan and stick to it. >> hang on, i can only assume that woo whhat we've seen with hurricane and the fact there are so many people not at work and spending money, there will be more missing at least on the revenue front, possibly on the profit fronts unless they cut costs and jobs coincident with the loss of revenue. >> i think you are right it is a little bit too early to assess the economic impact of sandy. but as steve just put it earlier, it would be naive to assume this will be a net positive. clearly this will be a negative. as we were driving through lower manhattan coming here today, how many stores are completely shut off? a lot of people can't get to work. a lot of people that aren't working. i do think it is in that negati negative. what's important for investors to remember is to take a longer term deal. we will get past this. there will be some pent-up demand -- >> jpmorgan stands by the ready to take that view and monetize it before your very eyes. >> we are ready, working, back in the office. >> thank you very much, joe
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tanious. in new york, everyone's talking about the storm. in los angeles, everyone is talking about the force. it is certainly with disney today after its massive deal to buy lucas films. the story behind the story and what it means next. so anyway, i've been to a lot of places. you know, i've helped a lot of people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing)
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over 00 million shares of facebook expired monday. this is the first day the shares have been able to trade. a lot of people see this as the burst of a big lock-up. >> reporter: facebook employees had can now sell 230 million shares sending the stock down more than 5% today. it's now recovered off more than 3.5%. with facebook's stock still off more than 40%, global growth sent facebook stocks soaring to its biggest one day gains yet. november 14th, about 800 million employees shares will become available for sale. there are two other expirations
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coming december 14th and then again in may. we'll be watching to see how shares hold up today. volume is heavier than usual. >> before you go, let's mention the fact that disney's acquiring lucas films for $4 billion. do you think they'll be able to monetize "star wars" as easy as marvel would monetize. >> well, simon, we do think there is huge potential. across all of its various divisions, though disney shares are a bit lower today, analysts are almost universally bullish on the long term potential of this acquisition. "star wars" has grossed $4.5 billion worldwide. it's centerpiece of a lucas film acquisition with disney planning to release "star wars" episode 7 coming out in 2015, followed by another two films. now the deal is called more promising than the marvel acquisition back in 2009. jpmorgan likes the significant international potential and barclays analysts pointed to the strategic benefits beyond the
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studio in theme parks and of course consumer products. right now merchandise revenue is at $215 million annual business for lucas films. in case you're concerned about mickey mouse owning "star wars," george lucas told me yesterday he was drawn to disney because of its success creating the i independence as marvel as well as pa pixar after those acquisitions. >> western union, simon. weak earnings, weak guidance. many downgrades. one of them coming from evercorps today. stock getting blasted. we'll be right back.
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it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. after the storm there was calm, but could this be market calm before the market storm? we close out you the month in the next couple of hours. labor report comes out on friday. of course we have a big election next week which could also massively move the markets. >> absolutely. speaking of that election, o

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